A Waymo passenger says she was nearly kicked out of one of its autonomous vehicles due to her behavior during a ride. Alisia Cat Blair (@alisiacatblair) posted a TikTok clip of the trip in question.
Blair’s video begins with a recording of her sticking part of her body out of the window of a moving Waymo vehicle. According to a text overlay in the clip, this is a surefire way to ensure passengers will be “kicked out of” one of the autonomous driving vehicles. In a caption for her post, the TikToker writes that she was enjoying a “#nightout” in San Francisco when the video was recorded
Furthermore, as her video progresses, she and others in the car can be heard singing along to a track resonating from the Waymo’s sound system before the track ultimately comes to a close.
While the social media post doesn’t show her being kicked out of the Waymo, Blair provided some additional context in a comments section response. Another TikTok user asked, “Did you actually?”
To which Blair remarked, “They [Waymo] stopped the music and called us.”
Waymo Camera Monitoring
If you’ve ever seen one of Google’s driver-less taxis, you’ll see that the Mountain View, California-based company has outfitted them with several cameras. But they’re not just to help these vehicles navigate city streets without the need of someone behind the wheel. There are also cameras outfitted inside of the car to record what happens inside its cabin.
In a FAQ page regarding Waymo’s implementation of interior cameras, the tech giant writes that this tech is used to “make sure our car is clean, confirm all riders are wearing seatbelts, and make sure that nothing has been left behind at the end of a ride.”
In Blair’s video, she doesn’t look like she’s wearing her seatbelt, and Waymo’s onboard camera system could’ve clocked some unsafe passenger behavior.
So Can I Get Kicked Out Of a Waymo?
The question of seatbelts in Waymos also came up in this Reddit forum discussion uploaded to the r/Waymo sub. One user mentioned that they noticed during some Waymo rides that seatbelts were previously locked in place. This led them to speculate that previous riders simply clipped the belt in place and sat on top of it. However, seeing this had them ponder about how stringent Waymo is when it comes to the company’s safety policies.
Furthermore, they shared that they’ve been in situations where the vehicle began beeping after forgetting to initially put their seatbelts on upon entering the car. One user on the app said that if passengers don’t put on their seatbelts, a Waymo employee will call the vehicle and inform them to buckle up, and if they ignore this command, the car will pull over until the customer complies or exits the car.
Google added in another Waymo information web page that it “take[s] safety seriously,” and that passengers should “wear [their] seat belt at all times during” rides. Moreover, the software company does indicate that its vehicles are “programmed to pull over or, if necessary, stop in the road if it determines that to be the safest course of action.” Google added, again, stresses the importance of wearing seatbelts in this instance, telling customers to keep them fastened if their Waymo stops or pulls over during the course of their ride.
Paying Extra?
Riders may also face extra fees if they aren’t playing nice, according to a Capital One post. The bank writes that Waymo passengers could incur extra fees during their rides if they aren’t adhering to the rideshare service’s safety rules. This, Capital One says, includes throwing items outside of car windows and not wearing seatbelts. In Blair’s case, it seems that she did both of these things. Well, she didn’t throw herself out of the car, but did stick her arm and head out of a rear passenger window. Or it could just be that whoever was monitoring their ride wasn’t a fan of “Stay the Night” by Zedd and Hayley Williams, but there isn’t anything on Google/Waymo’s information pages that suggests a prejudice against this track, or Blair and her friends’ rendition of it.
Waymo’s cabin cameras seem to be used for another purpose, too: Ensuring drivers exit vehicles at the end of their rides. This Reddit post shows one of Google’s autonomous cars approached by a cop “for not vacat[ing] the vehicle in a timely manner.” In the video, a male rider can be seen sitting in the Waymo’s front seat, with his head hunched forward and his eyes closed. After knocking on the taxi’s front passenger door several times, a police officer opens the door and comments on the rider’s well-being. “You are out cold, hunh?” they ask in the clip.
Inside EVs has reached out to Waymo via email and Blair via Instagram DM for further comment.
